


Secrets and Santas

by whatisreggieshortfor



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Has Anxiety (Julie and The Phantoms), Bisexual Nick (Julie and The Phantoms), Bisexual Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), F/F, F/M, Lesbian Carrie Wilson, Lesbian Flynn (Julie and The Phantoms), M/M, Pining, Reggie Has ADHD (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie has fibromyalgia, Secret Santa, The Band Knows How to Cope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:34:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27918298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatisreggieshortfor/pseuds/whatisreggieshortfor
Summary: Nick has been pining after Reggie and gets him for their music class’s Secret Santa.This was supposed to be a one shot but I always make them too long so I apologize.
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Nick/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 120





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know if you guys follow the julieandthephantoms Instagram page, but Reggie and Alex’s last names are official! Reggie Peters and Alex Mercer!

Their music teacher decided Secret Santa was a good idea. No one really knew why, especially when she announced the gifts could not be music related. She also wasn’t doing a name draw. She was meeting with each student privately and assigning a name, because she felt it gave everyone a chance to understand someone else better. Nick was not looking forward to it. Carrie was the only one in the class he actually knew well enough to buy a gift for, except maybe Julie and Flynn. Since Carrie and Julie had become friends again when Carrie started dating Flynn, Nick knew them enough to find something for them. But when he was called to meet with Miss Harrelson, she slipped him a paper with a name to someone that he did pay a lot of attention to. Because he couldn’t seem to stop staring at them. Nick took a deep breath, and moved back to his seat, not looking up from his feet as he shoved the paper in his pocket. Carrie was watching him curiously, and he knew she would get the name out of him by the end of the day. She leaned over to him, “By the way, did I mention we’re eating lunch with Flynn and Julie’s band today?” Fuck. So she would definitely get the name out of him by the end of lunch, at least. He nodded, keeping his eyes closed.

Turned out, he couldn’t even make it through another period before he panicked and told her. She was his best friend, and he needed to talk to someone about it. “What’s the problem?” She quirked an eyebrow as she fussed over the Bunsen burner in chemistry.

“I got Reggie Peters.” He sighed, muttering quietly so no one else would hear him. She matched his volume. He glanced across the room where Reggie was working with Luke.

“For what?”

Nick rolled his eyes, “Secret Santa.”

“And why’s that a problem?” Carrie asked as she passed him the chemicals she measured out.

“Because I don’t know enough about him to get him a gift and if I fuck this up he may hate me forever.” Nick ran his gloved hands through his hair after he added the chemicals together.

“Over dramatic much?” Carrie sighed as she wrote notes from the experiment, across the room they heard beakers clanking.

“No, Luke, don’t add those-“ but Reggie was too late. Suddenly the beaker they had over the burner was smoking and the teacher was hurrying everyone out of the room. Out in the hallway, Reggie was still coughing from the smoke he inhaled, and Nick was anxious. He didn’t talk to Reggie much because everything about the dark haired boy made him nervous, but he found himself standing beside him, rubbing slow circles into his back until he was able to breath again. “Thanks.” He said quietly.

“No problem.” Nick answered, still rubbing his back before he realized what he was doing and slowly retracted his hand. Nick cleared his throat before turning to look at Reggie, who was watching him cautiously. “So I-“

He didn’t get to finish before the teacher was calling their attention, telling them that it was safe to gather their things and move to the study hall next door.

When lunch rolled around, Nick was tempted to skip and head to the gym for extra practice time, but he knew Carrie wouldn’t let him. If anything, she would just bring the others there to eat and watch him and he was uncomfortable with the thought alone. So he made his way to the cafeteria, taking the open seat on Carrie’s right with Flynn on her left.

“Hey, what were you gonna say earlier?” Nick looked at the voice on his right and almost jerked in surprise when he found himself staring into Reggie’s eyes. They were sparkling in the cafeteria lights, and for a second Nick forgot he was supposed to answer.

“Oh, uh, I don’t really remember now.” He laughed nervously, and he thought Reggie looked disappointed. “But uh, since you guys didn’t finish the experiment, you can borrow my notes if you want.”

“Oh, yeah, thanks.” Reggie grinned. “I can get them from you in English if you want?”

“Maybe after school.” Nick laughed, “You never lose focus in English. You might not remember.” Reggie flushed and it was the most adorable thing Nick had ever seen.

“Reg loves to read.” Alex grinned from his seat next to Willie, the only person on Nick’s lacrosse team that he spoke to outside of the sport. “Getting him away from a book he’s interested in can be a pain in the ass.”

Luke chimed in, “Remember when we had to postpone practice for two weeks because he was obsessed with that series? He finished it the first week and had to spend the second one crying over fictional characters.”

Reggie groaned, “ _House of Night_ is a good series and you both can fight me on that.”

“ _House of Night_?” Nick asked, “The vampire series where they get elemental powers?”

Reggie’s entire face lit up, “You’ve read it?”

“Only the first half. I had trouble finding the books past _Tempted_ and couldn’t find hard backs online.”

The rest of lunch was spent mostly quietly, as the others watched fondly as the two boys went over every part of the books they’d both read.

(“Of course your favorite part would be where he shoots the arrow at her heart and hits himself in the chest.” Reggie grinned.

“What’s that supposed to mean? What’s your favorite part?”

“Can’t tell you. It would be a spoiler.”)

By the end of it, Nick knew he was getting dangerously close to falling in love.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick started asking Carrie if they were sitting with the band at lunch, instead of waiting for her to approach him about it. Which Carrie was thankful for, so she could be with her girlfriend. Nick had ordered Reggie’s present for Secret Santa online the day after the drawing. A red shirt that had black letters on the front. It read  _ Fledgling _ , because of the book series they bonded over, but Nick chose red because of the flannel Reggie wears all the time. Red was his color. It was scheduled to arrive two days before the gift exchange. He was probably too excited about it. They had a week until the exchange, and when he got to the table that day, Reggie set a book in front of him. The book after  _ Tempted _ . Nick raised an eyebrow as he picked up  _ Burned  _ turning to look at the other boy.

“You said you couldn’t find it anywhere.” Reggie shrugged. “I have extra copies of all of them. You can have that one.”

Nick was a little taken aback. “Are you sure?”

Reggie nodded with a grin, “Yeah, when you finish it I’ll give you the next one.”

“At least let me buy the copies from you.” Nick argued, but Reggie shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it. They were given to me, so now I’m, like, paying it forward.”

“Reg, didn’t your parents-“ Alex started but Reggie nodded and he stopped.

“Yeah, that’s how I have doubles of them. My parents both bought the sets as make up gifts when they missed my birthday last year.”

“Your parents missed your birthday?” Nick asked before he could stop himself.

Luke shook his head, “It was the third year in a row. They show up with make up gifts a month or two later.”

“Luke, please, stop talki-“ Reggie let out a loud yawn, effectively cutting off his sentence. “Sorry, I’m a little tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Alex leaned forward, brows furrowed, “Reg, you said you were heading to bed at like nine last night.”

Julie looked at Reggie with sad eyes, not pity but sympathy, “Are they doing it again?”

The bassist sighed, turning to Nick and Carrie, the only ones that didn’t look like they understood, “My parents, uh, they argue a lot. They’ve been getting better, but it’s close to the holidays so they’ve been arguing again.”

Luke muttered under his breath, “Arguments usually don’t end with one of the people or their kid getting hurt.”

Nick was worried about Reggie. The worry didn’t exactly go away when he realized Reggie had been so tired that he fell asleep in their study hall at the end of the day. Nick sat with him after the bell rang, and just waited til he was ready to wake up. When he woke up, he panicked. Nick calmed him down, promising to drive him home since he missed the bus, but Nick could still see the tension in Reggie’s shoulders as they got into his car. He managed to calm the darker haired boy down, just by talking to him and taking the long way to his house. But when he parked, he could hear the arguing, even though the windows were up and none in the house were open. Reggie asked him if he could drop him off at the studio instead, so he did. Nick decided not to leave, unless Reggie asked him to, so he asked if the bassist wanted to watch a movie or something. Reggie smiled, turning on the vhs player he’d put in the studio so he could force the others into an original trilogy Star Wars movie. They fell asleep on the couch together that night.


	3. Chapter 3

It was finally the day of the Secret Santa exchange, and Nick was trying to remain calm. He wasn’t doing a good job. In the last week, he had gotten to know Reggie more, woken up with Reggie sprawled on his chest after they fell asleep watching movies, he’d listened to the bassist go through his Hanukkah prayers with their friends as he lit the menorah, and the other boy was more caring and funnier than Nick could have predicted from afar. He was in deep, and he didn’t think he would be able to pull himself out. Carrie had somehow convinced him to go for it, so he had asked Reggie to hang out after school that day, which Reggie had responded with a grin and finger guns saying “sure thing, bro.”

But right now, Nick was sitting at his desk in music class, present sitting in front of him. The teacher said she was going to call each of their names, and when she does whoever has them is to bring the gift they selected over to their desk. Nick hadn’t even pondered who might’ve had him, more focused on choosing the right thing for Reggie. When he heard his name, he almost startled. And he flushed when he saw the very bassist that had been preoccupying his thoughts walking over to him. Reggie set the gift down and high tailed it back to his own seat, the blonde not even having time to say thank you, if his brain had been working enough to say it anyway. Reggie’s name was called next, and Nick got to his feet. He knew he was probably as red as the shirt he’d picked as he set it down, whispering “Happy Hanukkah” before running back to his own chair. Nick noticed something weird though, Flynn and Carrie got each other, so did Luke and Julie, and Alex and Willie. He remembered seeing a video back when vine was still a thing, about teachers pairing up students that liked each other for projects and stuff, and he thumped his forehead against his desk. _This was not the way real life was supposed to work._ When she told them to open the gifts, he was a little struck by what Reggie had given him. It was a _Fledgling_ shirt, just like he’d given the other boy, but it was in a forest green color. Without thinking, he turned to the bassist, who was staring at him just as shocked. Out of nowhere, a laugh erupted out of Nick’s throat, and he didn’t even try to fight it. Soon Reggie was laughing too, and when the others in the class turned to look, they just held the shirts up because they were laughing too hard to speak. Miss Harrelson suggested they go change and wear them together, and Nick realized they were both nodding.

“I can’t believe this happened.” Reggie said through another laugh as they walked through the hallway to change. “I thought I was being original.”

“In fairness, so did I.” Nick grinned at him, bumping their shoulders together. “Why’d you choose green?”

Reggie shrugged, but Nick saw a blush creep over his cheeks, “I like green on you. And you’re pretty down to earth, you’re grounded. So I thought it made sense. Why’d you pick red?”

Nick chuckled, “Ask literally anyone at this school, red is your color.”

The dark haired boy laughed, “Really? My ex used to tell me it was blue, cause of my eyes.”

“Well she was wrong. I’m sure blue is nice, and it might match your eyes, but red makes your look amazing.” Nick faltered for a second and cleared his throat, “Anyway, red is definitely your color.”

“He.” Reggie answered simply.

“Huh?”

“My ex was a he.”

“Oh. I didn’t mean to assume-“

“No it’s fine,” The bassist interrupted, “I just wanted to make sure you knew I liked guys, too.” Reggie winked before disappearing into the locker room.

Later, Nick and Reggie had gone to an arcade. Playing different games that they beat each other at. When they got back to the Peters’s house, Nick flushed clear down his neck, pulling a sprig of mistletoe from his hoodie pocket. He gave Reggie a shy smile as he muttered, “Only if you want to.”

“Don’t kiss me if you’re afraid of thunder.” Reggie said quietly, “My life is a storm.”

Nick almost asked what he meant, but then he heard it. The glass shattering, the raised voices, the thudding against the walls. Reggie’s parents were fighting again. “I’ve never been afraid of thunderstorms.” He said seriously, leaning in to steal the other boy’s lips.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly do love House of Night, but I’m only as far as Nick in this. 😂


End file.
